Little Matchmakers
by Beth Einspanier
Summary: While helping his injured teammate Hinata, Shino must face his growing feelings for her. If only his kikai would butt out... ShinoHina.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Naruto" and all related characters and settings are not mine. I make no money off this story. Masashi Kishimoto doesn't even know who I am.

Author's note: In this fic I'll use the western naming convention: Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, etc. I've always enjoyed unconventional combinations (like writing a Naruto story that does not actually star Naruto). This story starts out mainly serious, but ends with a bit of humor.

****

Shino Aburame ran swiftly back to Team 8's camp, carrying a precious cargo in his arms: his teammate, Hinata Hyuuga. She was bleeding from the front of her left shoulder, a wound created by the kunai of a missing-nin that Team 8 had been sent to track down. A scratch on the metal plate of the forehead protector she wore around her neck told him that the wound could have been far worse, but the kikai – the swarm of Destruction Beetles who were his clan birthright and his closest companions – he had investigating the damage told him a grimmer story.

He skidded to a halt just inside the clearing, checking for any further intruders. Sensing none, he continued into the tent to tend to his fallen comrade.

His other teammates, Kiba Inuzuka and his nin-dog, Akamaru, had hared off in pursuit of the culprit, telling Shino that he would know that they'd caught the missing-nin by Akamaru's howl of victory. Shino, who had sent a small portion of his swarm in pursuit as well, had replied simply that Kiba would know of _his_ success by the distant screams of pain.

He was willing to concede that his statement had been a bit theatrical, in retrospect. Right now he had other concerns.

He laid Hinata on a sleeping mat in the tent and unzipped her bloody jacket, revealing her mesh undershirt and the bandages she wore to bind her chest, both also stained with blood. Shino leaned forward to sniff at the wound, a slow, delicate inhalation that told him just as much about the wound as the snuffling of a hound. The bittersweet odor confirmed the kikai's diagnosis: the kunai that had been used to stab Hinata had been poisoned, and it was a toxin that he knew.

The kikai, he knew, were not the only species of insect native to Fire Country that were capable of destroying chakra. To the west, one found the Medusa Fly, whose venom caused muscle rigidity and paralysis while it drained its prey of life energy and bodily fluids, leaving behind desiccated corpses like grotesque statues that crumbled at a touch. To the south, one found the Whiplash Centipede, who lays its eggs under the skin of sleeping victims. The larvae, once hatched, grow fat on chakra before chewing their way free of their nursery – a process that is enough to kill most people and has the potential to cripple trained shinobi.

This toxin, however, came from a northern species, the Silvery Moonwing Moth, whose bite is ordinarily not lethal to humans, but whose toxin can be gathered and rendered into a deadly surprise to coat the knife blades of those who can afford the expensive toxin. He would have to work quickly if his kikai were to neutralize the poison in time. He extended a hand over Hinata, and the remainder of the swarm flowed out like a living fluid, thrumming in a businesslike fashion as they made their way under her jacket to draw out the toxin from every pore and destroy it. As they worked, he closed his eyes behind his dark glasses, listening to the messages they passed along to him in the strange, alien language of the insects.

_The female's pulse is steady._

_Good,_ he replied.

_Two chakra points in her shoulder and upper arm are weakened, but intact._

_Bolster them, if you can, _he instructed.

_The wound is clean, with minimum tissue damage. The blade was sharp._

_Any signs of infection?_ he asked.

_None. The toxin is tasty. Yum yum._

Shino allowed himself a small smile behind the collar of his jacket._ I'm glad you enjoy it. Eat all of it._

_We are. The last of the toxin is gone. She sleeps now._

_Keep me informed._

Shino opened his eyes and glanced at Hinata. He was concerned for her, as he would be for any teammate – she reminded him of a butterfly, outwardly fragile but beautiful, but inwardly as strong as any of the other ninja of Konoha. He sat her up briefly, pulling her jacket off, followed by her undershirt, to keep them out of the way while he washed and sutured the wound. The bindings he kept in place; there was no reason to remove them, after all. The kikai shuffled out of his way as he worked, discreetly offering no commentary. They were not prone to juvenile ribbing in any case, a trait for which he was glad as he bandaged her shoulder. He worked quickly, and in little time at all her shoulder was bound in linen bandages. He was observing his handiwork (and, to be sure, absolutely _not_ admiring the kunoichi beneath it), when he was alerted by his kikai.

_Kiba returns._

Shino glanced over as the out-of-breath dog-ninja thundered into the clearing with all the subtlety of a grizzly bear with intestinal issues. He pulled a blanket over Hinata, as much for his own sake as for hers, and left the tent, aware of the sense of discouragement he felt from Kiba. Akamaru was having a sneezing fit, and Kiba's eyes looked red and irritated.

"He dropped a camphor-bomb," Kiba growled in annoyance, "Fouled up our tracking. We lost him."

There was a distant scream, shrill and blood-curdling, a sound of despair, fear, and indescribable agony rolled into a single ragged high E.

"I didn't," Shino said, a bit unnecessarily.

"How's Hina-chan?" Kiba asked.

"She sleeps. Her wound was poisoned, but it has been cleaned. She will recover, with some weakness. I will watch over her tonight. You guard the perimeter." He turned back to the tent. "We will return to Konoha in the morning, so that our teammate can get more detailed medical attention."

He went back into the tent, impassively weathering Kiba's annoyance. The dog-nin, as Shino was well aware, occasionally resented Shino's take-charge attitude, but the bug-nin knew that some things were too important to argue over – ensuring the safety of a team member was one of these. He knelt beside her sleeping form, nibbling on some rations from his pack. Kiba, he knew, carried no food with him, preferring to hunt for his dinner.

Kiba poked his head into the tent, glancing at Shino, then at Hinata. He narrowed his eyes protectively when he saw her mostly bare shoulders above the blanket, and the thin, living lace of kikai on every visible part of her. Shino paused in the middle of biting into a rice-ball, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Was that necessary?" Kiba asked.

"Stitching and bandaging the wound?" Shino returned, swallowing the mouthful of rice, "Absolutely. It would not have healed properly otherwise. The scar tissue alone would have hindered the movement in that shoulder." To his relief, Kiba decided to drop the issue.

"I'm gonna go catch some dinner. Want any?"

Shino held up his own box of foods to indicate that there was no need. Kiba vanished again, off on the hunt. Of course, Shino knew full well what the real issue was – Kiba had a protective streak towards Hinata, and likely wanted to be the one to deliver his vengeance on the murderous missing-nin. Shino felt a bit of amusement that Kiba thought her state of dress was anything other than necessity, or that the kikai could be used as a tool for molestation. Quite a bit would be lost in translation, for one thing.

_Kiba wishes to mate with Hinata_, said the swarm.

_I am aware of that, _he replied. He knew that a number of Konoha ninja were taken by her delicate beauty, whether or not they cared that she was the heir to a noble house. She had dated a number of his classmates, including Shikamaru (dissolved by mutual agreement, though the details were not known to him), Rock Lee (who had frightened her a bit), and Naruto (whose heart, she had realized with some sadness, beat most strongly for Sakura).

_We think you wish to mate with her also_, the swarm added.

_What makes you say that?_

_Your pheromones. They paint a clear picture for us._ He would have sworn that the swarm sounded almost amused.

He reached out and coaxed away a beetle from Hinata's face, where it had been making her nose twitch. It was impossible to argue with beetles. Fortunately, they tended not to be blabbermouths. They would keep his secret. He lightly caressed a strand of her raven hair, feeling how silky it was under his fingers. He was the creepy bug-nin. She would never go for someone like him. But he could still be a loyal teammate.

_She might,_ the swarm said.

He paused, the chopsticks halfway to his mouth with the last morsel of food. _No, she wouldn't,_ he replied.

_You never know. Females can be mysterious._

_You got that right,_ he said, shoving the last bite of food into his mouth.

He put away the empty ration box and closed his eyes, allowing himself to get some sleep.

*****

_She wakes,_ the swarm informed him.

He opened his eyes, hearing her stir. It was still dark within the tent, indicating that the sun had not yet risen.

"Don't move," he said to her, extending a hand. The kikai crawled and flew back under his sleeve. The sensation of many tiny crawling legs caused her eyes to snap open in a state of momentary panic. She glanced around until she saw him, just as the last of the beetles vanished under his clothing. "How are you feeling?"

"W-what happened?" she asked. As usual, her voice was barely above a whisper.

"You were injured. The missing-nin had a poisoned blade, and wounded you in the shoulder. I took you back to camp and treated your wound, while Kiba hunted down your attacker. The toxin is gone. You may still be weak, but you will recover fully in time."

He had a moment of silent terror when she tried to sit up, but she realized in time and clutched at the blanket, her eyes wide, as the blush rose in her cheeks. Technically, she was still covered anyway, thanks to the chest-bindings, but…

He averted his gaze, thrusting her jacket and undershirt at her before retreating from the tent. At least she didn't scream.

He saw that it was only barely nighttime by the loosest definition of such, as it was starting to be overtaken by a bare border of pale predawn at the eastern horizon. Shino sighed, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. Kiba, he was pleased to note, was still asleep in his own tent. The campfire had burned down to embers. He crouched in front of it meditatively.

It was not long before he heard footsteps behind him. They were light and tentative, and paused a few feet behind him. The swarm thrummed encouragingly inside him. Great, he thought. Four million beetles were trying to give him romantic advice. They shouldn't even know anything about mammalian mating practices.

"Um… Sh-Shino-kun?" he heard Hinata say behind him. He glanced over his shoulder. She'd managed to pull on her undershirt just fine, but her jacket had defied her, owing much to the limited mobility in her left shoulder. The jacket was closed, and her right arm was in its sleeve, but the left sleeve hung empty.

"Yes?" he asked.

"I w-won't bother you if y-you'd r-rather be a-alone," she managed to stutter, "But c-could you help me with m-my jacket?" Her silver gaze (the color of the wings of the Moonwing Moth, he noticed with a bit of amused irony) was firmly set on her fingers, which clutched her jacket closed. "I just d-don't want to wake Kiba-kun."

He considered his options for a moment, and finally came to a decision. He straightened up. "I'll help."

She gave him a smile, small and shy, and he noticed that the pinkness had not entirely left her otherwise pale cheeks. He filed this bit of trivia away for later retrieval as she turned and went back into the tent.

She had lit a lantern, which filled the tent with a warm glow. Standing behind her, he took hold of the collar of her jacket. She tensed briefly before allowing him to slip it off her again. Resisting the urge to spend too much time looking at her pale shoulders and back, he held the jacket low so she could slip her injured arm into its corresponding sleeve. He pulled the jacket gently up, careful not to pull her stitches. To her credit, she only made a small noise to indicate that the motion bothered her. Once it was back up on her shoulders, he swept her long hair aside out of the collar, giving himself another, almost sinful glimpse at her pale neck. He put his hands firmly in his jacket pockets.

"Thank you," she said, zipping up the jacket. He nodded silently and turned to leave. Her voice stopped him. "Shino-kun?"

"Yes?"

"You did a good job on my shoulder. You would make a good medic-nin." He waited for the qualification, _if you weren't so creepy_, but it didn't come. Instead, she said, "What's that humming noise?"

_Damn. Damn damn damn._ "It's me. Rather… it's the swarm." He hesitated. "They… like you." _Shut up shut up all of you shut up I'm not going to go there not going to go there I can't go there she's my teammate I'm not going to go th—_

His thoughts were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He turned back.

"I like it," Hinata said, "It must be… soothing. Um… can I…?"

She took a step towards him. He stood there, frozen and awkward. He couldn't very well say no. Not to her. He was thankful for the deep shadows of his hood, because the heat rose in his cheeks as she leaned close, favoring her shoulder, pressing her ear to his chest, and listening to the low hum of the swarm. She only came up to his collarbone.

_Thanks a pantload, you guys_, he told them.

_You're welcome,_ the swarm replied, without a trace of irony.

He glanced down, and saw a smile spread across Hinata's face. In truth, the bulk of the swarm was centered more towards his abdomen, but he wasn't going to bring that up right now. Instead, he watched her from behind his dark glasses, the barrier between himself and the outside world. Impulsively, he reached up and stroked her hair. She glanced up at him, surprised by the gesture, but then she stood on tiptoe, pulling down his collar so she could kiss him on the cheek.

He stood there for a few moments, a bit stupidly, reaching up to touch the cheek that she'd kissed. She didn't think he was creepy. She thought of him as a friend… possibly more.

It was getting to be too much.

"We have a long journey ahead of us when the sun comes up," he said quietly, "I'll leave you so you can get some rest." The swarm's humming hit a note that sounded distinctly disappointed.

He turned to go.

"Wait."

He stopped.

"C-could you stay?"

He considered this.

_Of course you can,_ the swarm pointed out.

_Enough with the commentary!_

_Sorry._ They didn't sound particularly sorry.

"I'll say," he said aloud, "To make sure the wound is healing properly."

He turned back, and resumed his place on the tent floor next to the sleeping mat, sitting on his heels.

She extinguished the lantern, and then in the dark gave him a light peck on the lips. By the time he recovered, she had settled in on the sleeping mat.

_Maybe she'd like some flowers when we get back to the village. Human females enjoy flowers._

He gritted his teeth. _SHUT. UP._


	2. Chapter 2

It had been four days since Hinata had been checked in at the Konoha Hospital. Sakura Haruno, who had become a skilled medic-nin under the tutelage of the Fifth Hokage, instructed Hinata to rest so that the damaged chakra points in her shoulder could heal properly.

"It's not as bad as it could have been." Sakura had told Shino, "It's a good thing you were around to get the poison out in time – otherwise her arm would have been rendered useless – or worse."

Shino had nodded grimly, his expression unreadable behind the layers he usually wore. He was still thinking of that night. He had wanted to say something to Hinata… encouragement? Words would not heal her shoulder. Wish her luck? He didn't believe in luck. Hard work had made him a skilled ninja. All luck had made him was an Aburame, a creepy bug-nin. Feared and shunned by… no, not quite all. While it was true that the Aburames inspired fear and uneasiness in most other ninja, he could name two people who did not fear him. And one of them…

He had remembered her touch – so delicate, like the whisper of a moth's wings – the way she leaned against him to hear the buzzing of his kikai. And then, the kiss…

Her kiss had been so light, so innocent, and almost virginal in its purity. What could he say that would be equivalent to that?

The swarm had stirred uneasily, responding to his inner conflict.

In the end, he'd left without a word, while Hinata and Kiba were still chattering in her hospital room.

So it was that, four days later, Shino knelt on the bank of a river, a dragonfly balancing delicately on the end of his finger. The Dancing Jade Dragonfly, he identified it. Its lace-like wings blurred almost to nothing as its jewel-green body nearly hovered above his finger.

So delicate…

Just like her.

_Kiba is coming, _the swarm told him.

He glanced up, the dragonfly floating away to conduct its business elsewhere, but he had just pinpointed Kiba when…

"BAKA!"

… the dog-nin hit him with a flying tackle, sending them both tumbling into the river with a splash amid the scattering cloud of dragonflies. Acting on instinct, Shino moved to defend himself, deflecting Kiba's punches until he managed to shove his teammate off him and get to his feet. The tiny holes that his kikai used to exit him had reflexively shut tight while he was still airborne, but he was now soaked to the skin, his jackets sodden and heavy on him. Kiba's posture was that of an angry dog, his hands hooked into claws and his sharp teeth bared. If he had hackles, they would be raised. Behind him, on the bank, Akamaru reflected his master's mood, his own fangs bared in a growl.

"What on earth has gotten into you?" Shino demanded, not taking his eyes off Kiba while feeling around in the water for his glasses.

"Where the hell have you been?" Kiba returned, each word bitten off as sharply as a bark.

Shino surfaced with his glasses and put them on. He saw that Kiba was not truly angry with him… but upset about something else.

"Has something happened? Is Hinata okay?" The way Kiba's eyes narrowed told him he was on the right track.

"Pfeh. Not like you care, asshole. Where the hell have you been these past four days, anyway?"

"I've been busy." Shino knew it sounded lame.

"Too busy to visit your own goddamn teammate in the hospital?"

"I sent flowers. Twice. Ask Ino." He attempted to wring the water from his outermost jacket, with limited results. "I was told she needed to rest. I didn't want to interfere with her recovery. Now, what is this about?"

Kiba scowled at Shino's calm tones. "She's gone," he snarled.

Shino's head jerked up.

"Oh, NOW I have your attenOOF!" Kiba had good reflexes – the reflexes of a wolf, in fact. But Shino had the speed of an insect, even waterlogged, and he was on the dog-nin in an instant, his hands fiercely gripping Kiba's collar. Akamaru barked in alarm and tried to pull Shino off. Shino barely felt the nin-dog's jaws on his arm. What he felt was a focused sense of calm urgency. His kikai whirred out of him and hovered in an angry dark cloud over the three of them.

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Shino asked, very quietly.

"I mean, she's gone. She left the hospital. Sometime last night. I thought you knew."

Shino let him up, his swarm condensing back into him but still whirring in agitation. "Of course I didn't know. How could I?" Guilt bit at him like the fangs of a spider.

"She was asking about you," Kiba said, "Asking why you didn't come to visit. Yeah, she saw the flowers, and she liked them, but she wanted _you_ there. You're part of the team, too, you know."

Shino sighed. "It's difficult to explain."

Kiba tilted his head, puzzled by Shino's sudden withdrawal. The bug-nin wasn't chatty at the best of times, but…

His nose twitched. He caught the scent of something coming from Shino – and then he understood.

"Aha," he said, "Gotcha. Hey, I understand. It's natural to get a crush on one of your teammates. Especially when it's Hina-chan – I was wondering when you'd notice how completely hot she was." Shino flushed, not a usual color for him. "Tell you what – we'll find her together, and then I'll give you twenty minutes to talk to her before I come back with the nurses."

Shino felt a wave of relief. Kiba wasn't going to rib him about this. "Thank you, Kiba."

"Yeah. Just understand this – _if you break her heart I swear to god I'll rip off your testicles and feed them to my dog— _are we clear_?_" Kiba's sudden transition from loyal hound to snarling wolf and back left Shino blinking.

"Crystal," Shino said.

*****

Hinata pushed aside the ferocious ache in her shoulder, delivering measured punches to the air in front of her and punctuating each with a yell of power. She couldn't allow herself to be weak. Her body would heal, but she couldn't allow herself to go soft by sitting around in a hospital.

She paused, gasping for breath, doubled over with elbows on knees. She rubbed her shoulder, hoping she was only imagining the numbness in her left arm.

"Hinata." She spun at the voice, immediately in a defensive pose – and saw Shino standing there, damp but otherwise unruffled.

"Shino-kun!" She ran to him, hugged him. She was glad to see him, however awkwardly he weathered her affections. He was practically rigid in her embrace now. "What are you doing here?" she asked, stepping back to look up at him. His face was unreadable behind his upturned collar and dark glasses, in the shadows of his hood.

"Mainly, I am wondering the same thing of you," he replied in that calm way he had, "You need to go back to the hospital and rest – otherwise, your left arm will become useless."

Her gaze dropped. "You already helped me once, when you treated my shoulder – I can't disappoint you. I want to be strong for you."

"Hina-chan." His use of the familiar form of her name made her look up in surprise. He had always used formal language. "Don't be strong for me. Be strong for yourself. Only then will you become truly strong."

"I… I can't," she whispered despairingly, "I feel… so weak right now. I couldn't even dodge a kunai…" Her eyes filled with tears, and she fell to her knees in front of him, clutching her injured shoulder. She felt slightly ashamed, weeping in front of her ever-stoic teammate like this, but to her surprise he dropped to one knee in front of her and drew her close in a hug. At first she was too startled by the unexpected tenderness of the gesture to react, but then she clung to him tearfully, letting out in a gush the frustrations and fears that rose up with every injury, every knockdown, every defeat. He held her silently, apparently content to be her object of comfort. Then, almost too quietly for her to hear, he whispered something that startled her from her despair.

"You are strong inside," he whispered, "As strong as you are beautiful. And you are… very very beautiful." His words lacked the flourish of Fire Country poets she had read; in his mouth, they sounded like a simple statement of fact. She looked at him curiously, she saw, in the gap between the top of his collar and the lower rims of his dark glasses, framed by his hood, a distinct tinge of pink to his pale cheeks.

"W-what are you saying, Shino?" She had never known him to lust after the kunoichi of Konoha, and this statement, uttered as though he were commenting on the weather, left her reeling slightly.

"I am not good at talking to people," he said, "I can speak the languages of a dozen species of dragonfly, a hundred species of beetle, every variety of butterfly, ant, bee, and moth in Fire Country. I know the dance of the bees, the delicate waltz of butterflies, the aerial ballet of mating dragonflies." He sighed. "But I don't know how to talk to you. I can't even find the words."

Hinata's brow furrowed in confusion. He spoke to her regularly, coordinating the team, directing attacks in three-on-three matches in the square. He wasn't the chattiest shinobi, but he was a comforting presence, on the battlefield, in the tent, here. He was the team's anchor.

But… this was different. Suddenly he was not Shino Aburame the Bug-nin. Now, he was Shino Aburame the awkward teenager, sixteen years old, storming with hormones, and caught in the presence of a girl whom he found beautiful.

She understood.

"If words will not come," she said, "Then do not speak. Simply do what you will."

He glanced away. "You'll hit me."

"I won't."

He reached up and unbuttoned the collar of his jacket, folding it back to expose the lower half of his face. He turned to her and, quickly, as though not wishing to lose his nerve, he pulled her close and pressed his thin lips to hers.

As kisses went, this was not the worst she'd had. It was clumsy and awkward, true, but it was also honest, and pure. His lips were cool against hers; once, Shino had explained that his lower body temperature was necessary for the health of the swarm, and even the layers of jackets he wore were more to protect the delicate larvae from burning than to keep him warm. His touch was delicate, as well-suited to handling fragile insects and performing field surgery as for soothing and comforting. As his hands cupped her face, she felt the low thrum of kikai moving through him, growing louder now as if in response to his emotions. Once, it had horrified her to know that this boy was home to millions of living insects. In recent years, however, she had come to trust him and his swarm with her very life. He tasted a bit like wild honey.

It ended too soon – he pulled away, catching his breath. She knew she was blushing at least as hard as he was – and she had never seen so much color in the bug-nin's cheeks. The swarm buzzed loudly within him; he paused, as though listening, translating, and then sighed in resignation.

"What is it?" Hinata asked, concerned. "Is something wrong? Are they upset?"

"No," he said, his lips twitching with mirth, "What you are hearing is the sound of four million Destruction Beetles… cheering me on." He glanced up sharply then, listening to the insectile messages only he could understand. He took her hands in his. His dark glasses gleamed like the eyes of an insect. "Kiba is coming, with nurses from the hospital. Hina-chan, you must go back to the hospital. Rest. Recover your strength. I will visit you, but you must do this for me."

Hinata nodded. "I promise."

"Good." He kissed her softly on the brow, buttoned his collar, and then stood up, drawing her to her feet. Still feeling a bit light-headed from recent events, she hung on to his arm for balance as they turned to meet the rescue party. As she leaned close to his side, she heard him whisper in the high dialect of Fire Country, as softly as his previous words of affection: "Watashi no ka chou-hime." _My beautiful butterfly princess._


End file.
